Thanks, Kim, from what you remember of the HS25 (did you do the same kind of ISO ladder with that cam?) was NR much less harsh and the colors more balanced and saturated with that camera at higher ISO?

How could you decide just like that? Based on a single lousy comparison? I will post my ISO ladder test later. And your samples are fine but not great Ralph. Detail-wise it is not close enough to what I have posted from HS30. But honestly a shocking truth is that HS50 is now a step behind in macro. The usual 150mm-3 inches away trick to get thr.maximum magnification no longer works.

Joms, I thought the HS20/30 basically had the same image quality- same sensor, same lens (yeah Fuji purported some improvements- but these were never realized in any reviews, outside of a slight focusing improvement.)

Unless you have both cameras and are taking pics of the same thing seconds apart with the exact same settings and PP, there's really no way to tell anyway lol.

Regarding the HS50-

what we dont have as good a macro mode now? maybe a consequence of the new lens?

Joms, I thought the HS20/30 basically had the same image quality- same sensor, same lens (yeah Fuji purported some improvements- but these were never realized in any reviews, outside of a slight focusing improvement.)

Yes same except that HS30 is a tiny weene better on ISO3200 and above.

Unless you have both cameras and are taking pics of the same thing seconds apart with the exact same settings and PP, there's really no way to tell anyway lol.

I was commenting on the picture not on the camera.

Regarding the HS50-

what we dont have as good a macro mode now? maybe a consequence of the new lens?

No more super duper tele-macro magic

what about super macro?

It is still there but you have to stick the lens to the face of the insect lol.

How does F900exr compares with F300exr? I guess it is a much better camera.

The F300 is a nice JPEG camera with excellent white balance. But when the F550 came out, the F300 was stomped. And the F7xx and F800 were better than that. The F900 raises the bar yet again from what I can tell.

I gave the F300 to a friend's daughter for a long trip and she is quite happy with it. But an enthusiast is likely to feel its limitations if low light is interesting at all. For a daylight shooter, the F300 remains one of the nicer of that series I think.

How does F900exr compares with F300exr? I guess it is a much better camera.

The F300 is a nice JPEG camera with excellent white balance. But when the F550 came out, the F300 was stomped. And the F7xx and F800 were better than that. The F900 raises the bar yet again from what I can tell.

I gave the F300 to a friend's daughter for a long trip and she is quite happy with it. But an enthusiast is likely to feel its limitations if low light is interesting at all. For a daylight shooter, the F300 remains one of the nicer of that series I think.

I like it! Especially with the Canon close up kit! One correction you might like to make- according to Joms the macro ideal spot for previous HS series cams was 150mm at 3 inches for the HS50 it is 200mm at 12 inches..... one thing I want to know is this the distance from the surface of the lens to the subject or from the sensor to the subject? 3 inches still sounds a bit too close for me if it is from the sensor to the subject (lens shadowing and scaring away the subject.)

I like it! Especially with the Canon close up kit! One correction you might like to make- according to Joms the macro ideal spot for previous HS series cams was 150mm at 3 inches for the HS50 it is 200mm at 12 inches..... one thing I want to know is this the distance from the surface of the lens to the subject or from the sensor to the subject? 3 inches still sounds a bit too close for me if it is from the sensor to the subject (lens shadowing and scaring away the subject.)

Kim is your high ISO low NR soft Sharpening test next?

I want to do the settings ladder LvsM next ... I shot a test target but it really does not exhibit the strange behavior I saw the other day. So I need to reshoot.

Thanks for all this extensive testing, Kim! One thing I wanted to ask about the macro capabilities of this camera (unaided with closeup lens) was how does it compare to previous macro kings like the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the Olympus C-7070? The former had a coverage area of 17mm along the smaller dimension and the latter's was 21mm........ I'm not taking into account sensor size (both were 1/1.7" format though, 4mp and 7mp) and an important feature was that there was very little distortion with either in macro/super macro mode because they both macro-ed/super macro-ed at the mid zoom position. I have to say that the C-7070 was much easier to focus though! I wonder how they would compare with HS series cameras (150mm at 3 inches or 200mm at 12 inches) in macro mode.....those cameras did well at 2cm (0.7 inches) at their mid zoom positions (95mm with the Nikon and 68mm with the Oly.)

Thanks for all this extensive testing, Kim! One thing I wanted to ask about the macro capabilities of this camera (unaided with closeup lens) was how does it compare to previous macro kings like the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the Olympus C-7070?

So how exactly would I answer that?

The former had a coverage area of 17mm along the smaller dimension and the latter's was 21mm........ I'm not taking into account sensor size (both were 1/1.7" format though, 4mp and 7mp) and an important feature was that there was very little distortion with either in macro/super macro mode because they both macro-ed/super macro-ed at the mid zoom position. I have to say that the C-7070 was much easier to focus though! I wonder how they would compare with HS series cameras (150mm at 3 inches or 200mm at 12 inches) in macro mode.....those cameras did well at 2cm (0.7 inches) at their mid zoom positions (95mm with the Nikon and 68mm with the Oly.)

I don't have any idea.

I do own an old Nikon 990, and it got nice and close for macro. But that generation of camera has ultra slow operation and mediocre JPEG engines with plenty of edge artifacts etc. So I don;t see it as all that relevant anyway ...